This is the Forward’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and its affect on Jewish communities around the world.
COVID-19
The Latest
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News Anti-vaxxers have stolen an anti-Nazi group’s identity
Around the world, black-and-white stickers have been popping up on lampposts and bus stops. “The Nazis had a phrase that covered all abuses of the state: It’s for your safety,” one says in blocky black letters. “People in 1940s Germany didn’t realize they’d been brainwashed by the media and government either,” screams another in all-caps….
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Opinion Facing the Delta variant, my congregants are lonely and afraid. We are making hard choices together
As a rabbi, I want to do the right thing for my congregation. But what is the right thing? I am the spiritual leader of a small synagogue in Sarasota, Fla. My congregation is older, and the COVID-19 pandemic has been especially devastating to them. The unexpected isolation was bad enough, but when it continued…
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News Synagogues made COVID-safe High Holiday plans. Then came Delta.
(JTA) — The leadership team at Ikar, a synagogue in Los Angeles, had just begun planning to move their services indoors. They had gone through a year of virtual services followed by several months of outdoor services for members vaccinated against COVID-19. Then the Delta variant hit. Now the synagogue, like many across the country,…
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Fast Forward Covid-busting ‘hand sanitizer for the nose’ goes on sale in Israel
Enovid, a new nasal spray that counteracts SARS-CoV-2, among other viruses, is now on sale in Israel. Although Israel approved Enovid as a medical device with a claim to protect from viruses, Phase II clinical trials in the United Kingdom found statistically significant evidence that the spray can prevent the transmission of the coronavirus and…
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News With vaccines scarce at home, Central and Latin America Jews journey to the US
Samuel Hayon, a Venezuelan living in Miami, was shocked when he went to Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital to try and get the COVID-19 shot in February. “I just ran into the entire Hebraica Israeli!” he said, referring to Caracas’s Jewish community. Hayon had noticed a trend that would only grow in the coming weeks and…
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Opinion Dropping my kids off at Jewish summer camp taught me how to let go
For many, our slow-motion exodus from the pandemic has yielded a harvest of mundane yet miraculous firsts — handshakes, hugs, houseguests, days back in the office, unmasked cappuccinos at our favorite cafes and many more. I have savored these reunions with life as I once knew it, yet none of them prepared me for dropping…
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Fast Forward GOP Washington state lawmaker apologizes for wearing Yellow Star of David
A Washington state lawmaker has apologized for wearing a yellow Star of David, a universal symbol of the Holocaust, during a recent speech decrying the state government’s coronavirus vaccination campaign as well as restrictions that have been in place since the pandemic began. “It’s an echo from history,” Jim Walsh, a Republican member of the…
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Fast Forward Baruj Plavnick, 69, rabbi whose synagogue was used as vaccination center, dies of COVID
(JTA) — BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — Bernardo Javier “Baruj” Plavnick, 69, the Argentine rabbi who opened his Buenos Aires synagogue for use as a vaccination center, died of COVID-19 on May 20. Pardes, the community founded by Plavnick in 1992, announced in February that it was establishing a vaccination center inside the synagogue. Some…
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Culture Bob Dylan warned us about guys like Stephen Miller
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Fast Forward The judge in Maduro’s case is an Orthodox Jew — and displays a Torah verse in his chambers
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Opinion The ICE shooting in Minneapolis shattered my Holocaust survivor father’s American dream
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News He stormed the Capitol wearing a Camp Auschwitz sweatshirt 5 years ago. Where is he now?
In Case You Missed It
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Opinion An arsonist torched a Mississippi synagogue. It feels hauntingly familiar.
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Fast Forward Can Breads Bakery workers really demand that the Israeli owners cut ties with Israel? Labor experts weigh in.
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Fast Forward From pop stars to tefillin pop-ups, Oct. 7 changed how Israel’s ‘somewhat observant’ practice Judaism
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Fast Forward After Australian literary festival drops Palestinian activist, citing Bondi massacre, dozens boycott in solidarity
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